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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Had a little too much politics of late? Much prefer an earnest discussion about why we're having so much trouble getting the economy moving? No, I thought not. Let's change the subject. Let's talk about time.

Do
you spend much time thinking about time? Most of us spend a lot of time
thinking how little time we have, but that's not the same thing. We
spend little time actually thinking about time, which I'm coming to
think is a big mistake.

Time is an economic resource, so it's surprising even
economists don't think much about it. Apart from Stephen Hawking and
his physicist mates, it's probably psychologists who do most of the
thinking, but even they don't do much.

People say time is money, which is true enough, but the fact that
most of us get most of our money by exchanging it for our time is only
half the reason time is an economic resource. Economics is the study of
the problem of scarcity, and there's nothing scarcer than time.

No matter how rich or poor we are, each of us gets the identical
daily ration of precisely 24 hours. So it's one dimension of life
working to reduce the gap between rich and poor.

But time is an
economic resource in another sense. When we exchange time for money we
use time as a means to an end. We use the money to buy things we hope
will make us happy. But time is also an essential part of the end
itself. We need time to enjoy the things we've bought with the money.

And
the more time we spend earning money, the less time we have to enjoy
ourselves - including by doing things that don't cost much if any money.

In an article in the Journal of Consumer Psychology,
Jennifer Aaker, Melanie Rudd and Cassie Mogilner, marketing experts at
Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania, remind us of the ultimate
reason why time is an end as well as a means: the way each of us chooses
to spend our time and the experiences we accumulate over the years
quite literally constitute our lives.

So let's forget money and
focus on time. How can we maximise the "utility" - satisfaction or
happiness - we derive from the limited, if unknown, quantity of time
we've been allotted? The authors survey the psychological studies of
time and distil them into a number of helpful hints.

Their first
principle is: spend your time with the right people. Because we're
social animals, the most satisfying thing we do is spend time with our
nearest and dearest and close friends. We should allocate more of our
time to being with them and enjoying the intimate conversations we have
with them.

But if it's so satisfying, why do we need reminding?
Because of all the time we need to devote to making money, but also
because we seem to be programmed to worry more about getting money than
about using our time in ways we find satisfying. We have an inbuilt bias
to worry more about means than ends.

This raises the question of
how we could get more joy from all the time we spend at work, but that's
so important I'll leave it for a column of its own.

A less
obvious principle is: enjoy the experience without spending the time.
Research in neuroscience has shown that the part of the brain
responsible for feeling pleasure can be activated by merely thinking
about something pleasurable, such as drinking your favourite brand of
beer or driving your favourite brand of sports car.

"In short,
this research suggests that we might be just as well off, or even better
off, if we imagine experiences, but not have them," the authors say.

If
that sounds a bit whacky, try the next principle: expand your time. You
can, of course, buy yourself more time by paying someone to do the
household chores you don't enjoy (in my case, mowing the lawn and
washing the car).

One way or another, the more discretionary time
we can organise for ourselves, the more we're likely to enjoy our time.
This is partly because of the two-way relationship between the scarcity
of time and its value to us.

It's not just that having little
makes it feel more valuable, the authors say. It's also that, according
to research results, when time is more valuable, we perceive it to be
scarcer.

Many people advocate focusing on the present moment
rather than the future as a way of increasing happiness. This may work
because research suggests being present-focused slows down our
perception of the passage of time, allowing us to feel less rushed.

But
get this: again according to the research, you can achieve a similar
effect simply by taking long, slow breaths for, say, five minutes.

Having
greater control over how we spend our time - or even just feeling that
we do - makes us happier, less depressed and physically healthier.
Freely chosen activities increase happiness, whereas obligatory
activities lower it - unless, of course, we can get ourselves into the
right frame of mind.

I've often thought that the way to feel more
relaxed and rested after the weekend is to be less greedy about all the
things you want to fit in. I think it, but I don't always do it.